


Of Letters and Phones II

by Servena



Series: How to Save a Life [8]
Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Anxiety, Best Friends, Friendship, Gen, M/M, Making Up, Phone Calls & Telephones, Reconciliation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-13
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2020-01-12 19:59:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18453587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Servena/pseuds/Servena
Summary: “You did what?!”





	Of Letters and Phones II

Babe spends the better part of a week slinking around the phone, until Gene basically locks him into the house and tells him to get it over with. He paces in the bedroom for another five minutes until he drags the phone over to the nightstand and sits down on the bed. He’d light a cigarette, but he forgot them downstairs and if he’ll go get them, he’ll surely lose his nerve, so he doesn’t. His fingers are shaking just a little bit as he turns the dial plate and this is completely ridiculous, Bill is his best friend, he’ll understand. Right?

It takes a while for the call to connect, he is calling from another state after all. When it finally does, he doesn’t even get the chance to say anything, instead Bill’s voice comes incredibly loud over the speaker: „Babe, where the hell are you?!”

Babe almost let’s go of the phone. “Louisiana?” he yelps in a rather undignified way.

“I know you’re in Louisiana!” Bill shouts at him, and all hopes of Bill maybe not being mad at him go right out the window. “Jesus, I thought you’d gotten eaten by an alligator! No calls, no letters, for weeks!”

“I’m sorry”, he says, and he wishes Bill could see his face because he really is sorry.

But apparently the tone of his voice is enough to convince Bill, because he calms down a bit after that. “When are you coming back?” he asks, his voice finally in a normal volume so Babe no longer has to hold the speaker away from his ear to save his hearing.

He swallows heavily at the question. Trust Bill to get straight to the point. “Uh…I’m not.”

There is a sudden silence on the other end. Babe can hear the sound of what is maybe a chair being pulled over and then the sound of someone sitting down. “What do you mean, you’re not?”

Babe stares at the wooden floor for a moment to gather his thoughts. There are specks of dust dancing in a beam of sunlight coming through the window next to him. “I’m…uh…staying. I sorta bought a house.”

“You did _what_?”

Babe winces at the sudden ringing in his ear. “I mean, Gene bought a house and I kinda helped out? It’s nice! You should come visit sometime”, he finishes lamely.

“Visit”, Bill echoes. “Babe, what the hell happened? Did they kidnap you?”

Babe fights the urge to smother himself in a pillow. They’re nice pillows, big and soft and fluffy, but right now they’re making this guilty feeling that’s been growing in his chest even worse. “You should know better than to let me leave by myself, I make rash decisions!”

“I know you make rash decisions, but usually that’s five dollars on the wrong horse or a beer too much, not a _house_!”

“It’s a nice house”, Babe says meekly.

“It better be! - Buys a house and doesn’t even tell me”, he can hear Bill mutter to himself. “Wait, does your Ma know?”

Babe winces at the memory. “I phoned her a while ago. Told her not to tell you.”

“Did she yell at you?” Bill asks, because he knows Babe’s Ma almost as well as Babe himself.

Babe sighs. “Only for the first five minutes or so.”

Bill makes a huffing sound that is almost a laugh, but doesn’t say anything else. Neither does Babe. Instead he drags the phone closer to the edge of the nightstand so he can lie back onto the mattress and stare at the wooden ceiling. For a moment he fears that the connection has been cut, but then Bill’s voice comes over the speaker: “Babe. You happy?”

There’s a panel loose in one corner of the ceiling. He vows to tell Gene later, he’ll surely be able to do something about it. “Yeah”, he says quietly. “Yeah, I am.”

There’s static crackling in the line before Bill says: “Then I’m happy for you.”

Babe breathes out slowly. “You really should come visit. It’s nice out here. Nice and quiet.”

“Oh, I’m gonna come visit! And then I’m gonna kick your ass so hard they’re gonna hear it all the way to Philly!”

They both laugh. Then Bill spends the next few minutes telling him all the things he missed out on that happened in their neighborhood. It’s precious little time since they both can’t rack up the phone bill too much (Babe is already wincing at what this is gonna cost them, and Bill’s family ain’t made of money either), but it’s almost enough.

“Tell the Doc I said Hi”, Bill finally says.

“I will”, Babe promises. “He made me call you, you know?”

“Yeah”, Bill says and laughs, “I can imagine.”

After they hang up, Babe stays on the bed for a while longer, sinking deep into the mattress and closing his eyes. He feels like a big weight has been lifted off his chest.


End file.
